Grenadier - The Senshi of Smiles

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Grenadier
The Senshi of Smiles
Rushuna Tendo from Grenadier
グレネーダー ~ほほえみの閃士~
(Grenadier ~The Senshi of Smiles~)
Genre Historical Settings, Adventure, Comedy, Ecchi, Shōnen
TV anime
Directed by Hiroshi Koujina
Studio Studio Live
Group TAC
Network WOWOW
Original run October 14, 2004January 13, 2005
No. of episodes 12

Grenadier - The Senshi of Smiles (グレネーダー ~ほほえみの閃士~ Gurenēdā ~Hohoemi no Senshi) is a twelve episode anime series directed by Hiroshi Koujina and produced by Group TAC and Studio Live. It aired on WOWOW in Japan from late 2004 to early 2005, and was licenced and distributed in America by Media Blasters. It was adapted from the manga of the same name by Sōsuke Kaise which is released in the U.S. by Tokyopop and in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Grenadier follows the travels of the Samurai Yajiro Kojima, a mercenary swordsman, and of the extremely busty Rushuna Tendo, an expert Senshi. A Senshi, or "Enlightened", is one who is skilled to some degree in the use of guns. The series begins with Yajiro, or the "Rear Guard Tiger", and a small army of Samurai launching a frontal assault against a fort in an attempt to free their Uesama (Samurai Lord); however, the fort was taken over by a power-thirsty group of gunners, and the assault fails.

Yajiro orders a retreat, but is spotted by the enemy and chased to a small cliff, which he jumps off of to escape. With his pursuers still following, he follows a nearby hot-water stream upcurrent where he finds Rushuna bathing in a hotspring. She seems undisturbed by his presence or her own nudity and hides him in the hotspring with her ample breasts as cover until the enemy passes them by. After this, she introduces herself as a traveler and reveals the ultimate battle strategy to Yajiro; to avoid battle by removing an enemy's will to fight.

Hearing the gunfire of the renewed assault upon the fort, Yajiro leaves Rushuna to rejoin combat. He arrives in time to see the leader of the gunners use a Gatling Gun to decimate the samurai. Rushuna also arrives at this point and shows her considerable gun talent and effectively ending the battle by defeating the lead gunner and rescuing the lord by herself.

Something in him changing, Yajiro decides to become Rushuna's partner and travel with her.

[edit] Characters

[edit] List of Episodes

# English Title Japanese Title Original Airdate
1. The Smiling Senshi ほほえみの閃士 2004-10-14
2. Rushuna under Attack 狙われた琉朱菜 2004-10-21
3. Enlightened Evil 魔の閃 2004-10-28
4. The Town that does not Smile 笑わない町 2004-11-04
5. Explosion! Kensousen, Kurenai Touka 爆裂!拳槍閃.紅桃華 2004-11-11
6. Balloonist, Mikan's Revenge 風船使い みかんの仇討ち 2004-11-18
7. Destination Tento いざ、天都へ 2004-11-25
8. An Enemy from the Past,Teppa Aizen 想い出の敵・藍前鉄破 2004-12-02
9. When the Wind Flowers dance 風花、舞う時… 2004-12-09
10. Entering Tento 天都入り 2004-12-16
11. Showdown With Tenshi 天子との対決 2005-01-06
12. Things Learned on the Road 旅で身につけたもの 2005-01-13

[edit] Media

See List of Grenadier - The Senshi of Smiles media.

[edit] External links

[edit] Trivia

  • In the first episode, which notes several times that Rushuna's gun only holds six bullets, at one point she shoots seven in a row without reloading.
  • Her nation's ideal of dissolving an enemy's will to fight with a smile and attempting to win a battle without combat is similar to Sun Tzu's quote "Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.".